The Fully Metallic Alchemist
by Jyxxie
Summary: Ed gives himself to restore Al, and the sacrifice leaves him barely alive. Winry saves him with her own special blend of artificial organs. Quick one-shot.


**Note**: I have no idea how alkahestry works. Haven't gotten that far!  
Fullmetal Alchemist and all of its characters belongs to Hiromu Arakawa.

* * *

Winry was the best automail mechanic in all of Amestris. Everyone knew. She would travel, learn more, practice more. And so, when she finally hit 30, it was no wonder she had become proficient enough to make more than just limbs. What with the news she is soon to receive, her skills will be put to the test.

Winry hadn't married. However, her fiance of eight years, Edward Elric, had kept her waiting for only one reason: he felt he was incredibly close to restoring his brother. After all, the boys had hit 30 years old.. Alphonse hadn't been able to grow up human, as he should have. As Ed had dearly hoped he would. It's no surprise that Ed blamed himself. It's no surprise that Ed was willing to give his life so that Al would finally be able to live his own.

That's what brought Ed to the Rockbell residence. Winry's home, and Ed's future home. Though, judging by how Ed had arrived, his future grave.

Alphonse was with him, human again, but tired and weak. Still, he was carrying Ed, his face an expression of terror. "Win..ry.. Ed, he's.." He looks down at his brother, arms shaking. Ed was breathing, but each breath caused him pain. As Winry watched, blood leaked from Ed's nose, mouth and ears; even the tears leaking from his eyes were diluted by blood.

Winry had taken them in immediately. Hooking Ed up to her surgical equipment, she quickly stabilized Ed, only to find his systems failing. Heart, lungs, kidneys, all of the major organs were going. By the way Ed was acting toward them, fighting them, they soon discovered that his head had been injured as well. He couldn't see or hear them. Ed was dying right before their eyes.

* * *

Hours and hours of surgery. It had taken so long to repair so little. Still, Winry worked diligently, watching Ed struggle against the restraints as she operated on him, doing her best to block out his screams of fear and agony. Ed clearly didn't know who was doing what do him; and with the major surgery he was getting now, he could think he was being tortured. After all, she realized; this was torture, whether one asked for it or not.

The heart was the first to be replaced. It had been one of the easiest organs to replace. Fortunately, she'd had the opportunity to test this on Den, who had passed on not too long ago. It had gone well, and that gave her hope for Ed. It gave her time. Time to replace the lungs. She replaces one to begin, and finds that the other begins working on its own, though weak. It's good enough for her as she continues to his other organs, saving his head for last. It's killing her to put him through this, to keep him thinking that he's an experiment; but she needs to save his body before she can spend the exhaustively large amount of time to repair his senses.

Through it all, Al stayed in the room, offering his help to Winry. He cried much of the time; though to be fair, he hadn't cried in so long, and had to learn to control the emotions of his body.

Winry, satisfied with her work on Ed's body, moves onto his head, and with a deep breath, begins working on his ears. Surgically she pokes around inside his head, adding mechanics and modifying Ed's ear. She finds that the eardrums have ruptured; she undertakes the delicate process of completely replacing them with her own creation. Both ears are completed in hours. Agonizing hours that Edward had put more vigor into trying to escape. Though she had avoided sedatives until now, in case he would slip away under their care; she gives him some now, letting him relax only enough to finish the surgery without interruption.

Finally, she has finished. She steps back, looking at Edward; he's a sore sight, but he will live. She looks over at Al, who's staring at Ed as he cleans up the empty blood bags they had used to save Ed with. Ed.. covered in blood. Shaking badly. Twitching under the restraints. Weakly crying out, asking almost unintelligibly about the situation.

"Why.. doing this.. who-are you.. whayya want.." Never giving up, Ed still forces, against the shock his body had been put through, against the restraints holding him for the past day, against the sleep that he's been fighting-for he needs to find out if Al is okay.

Winry looks at Al and nods, bringing the younger brother with her. They walk up to Ed's bed, Winry the first to reach out and touch him. Naturally, he tries to jerk away from her touch; but she runs her hand along his cheek comfortingly while she pokes gently into his ear to activate his new ears. He calms down a bit at the touch, but he's still incredibly irritated from the ordeal, not to mention he's gotten no answers to his crying, pleading and screaming the entire time he had been on the table.

"Ed," Winry says softly, shortly after activating the other ear. "Ed, can you hear me?"

Immediately after she speaks, Ed's struggling ceases. He instead narrows his eyes, the unfocused golden pupils darting around. "Wh.. inry?"

Winry smiles and leans her forehead against his. "Oh, Ed," she gasps, trembling slightly. "I did it. You're still here. You did it! Oh, Ed."

Ed exhales shakily, finally feeling a bit at ease. "What.. hann.. happened.."

Winry releases the restraints for him, blinking back tears. "You did it, Ed. Al's got his body back. You did it."

When Ed slowly slowly sits up, he feels Al wrap his arms around him in a hug. By a sniff, he can tell that it's not Winry by the smell; but he confirms it's Al when he speaks.

"Ed! You scared me." Al tightens his hug on the confused Ed. "You almost _died_ in that transmutation. Winry had to operate. Why didn't you wait until you had a better option?"

"Al, you need to live some day. You were still in that armor. Still in that armor," Ed repeats, mind still a bit fuzzy. Finally, he rubs his eyes, squinting. "My eyes.. is it dark in here? I can't see."

Winry grabs her handy flashlight from her desk, shining it into Ed's eyes. She frowns, not sure why his eyes aren't working; her inspection shows they should be. "You can't see anything, Ed?"

"Just black. It's.. dark in here, right? Really dark?" Ed says hopefully, and Winry, frowning, just hugs Ed tightly as Al draws a transmutation circle around the hospital bed. However, she quickly spots what he's doing and frowns.

"Al, what are you doing?"

"Brother and I learned this a few years ago. It wasn't any help to getting my body back, but maybe it will help with his eyes." Al finishes, activating it with Winry still in the middle with Ed. "It's alkahestry."

"Alkahestry?" Winry asks, feeling the energy flow through her. It feels.. calming. Intrigued, she looks at Ed, who has his eyes closed; he opens them, still staring, twitching his automail hand in front of his face as he waits for his vision to return.

"Do you really think this will work, Al?" Ed asks hopefully, feeling himself relaxing bit by bit as the energy flows through him. Boy, it's.. really relaxing.

"It has to," Al says, channeling the energy with practiced, patient focus. {It has to,} the words repeat in his mind; and suddenly, his concentration is broken by Ed's next phrase.

"It worked," Ed says, sounding startled. He looks around, eyes wide and blinking, and spots Al's exhausted physical form. "Alphonse..?"

Ed smiles, looking up at his brother from his kneeling position. He doesn't say it, but he hasn't even the energy to stand. "Ed, you did it." He grins.

Ed moves to get up, but is pushed back down by Winry. At Ed's protest, Winry holds up her wrench, which she still uses against him. "You've just been through major surgery, Ed. We'll explain it later. Right now, rest."

"But what-"

"_Rest_."

* * *

Rest had come easier than Ed would have thought, for how his mind was racing at the memory of his pain and fear, and at the excitement of Al being whole again. So, he slept. For several days, much to Al's unease.

_He'll be fine,_ Winry had told him. _His body needs time to recover. You do realize I replaced most of his major organs. He won't bounce right back from that, even when he awakens. At least he'll live._

Finally, after four days of sleeping, Ed had awakened, only to find Winry napping in a chair at his side. He had reluctantly nudged her awake, as he was feeling strange. He told her that breathing was difficult. He told her that he felt a buzzing in his chest. He told her that he felt unusually heavy. To all of these, he was greeted with Winry's reassuring smile. _All is as it should be, then._

After Al had been called in, Winry explained to Ed just what she had done to save his life. To prove her point, she walked over to a shelf with a curtain on it; and after warning the boys, pulled the curtain back. There, in jars, sat Ed's organs, preserved in formaldehyde. Poor Al and being new to his body; he couldn't help it, and had fainted at the sight. Ed had looked nauseated. He wanted to know, though, how long these 'replacements' would allow him to live. He waited for her answer, but she could only give him a puzzling one.

_Longer than yesterday, Ed. Longer than right now. For that long at least, you'll live._

* * *

Recovery, unsurprisingly for Ed, was very quick. He was back up and on his feet in no time, though with the automail straining his improvised system, he grew tired easily. Still, he'd take alive and tired over dead any day.

Adjusting to his new body was an interesting event for all three. Without meaning to, Ed would accidentally push his body too hard, and the heart would misfire a few times, resulting in mild pain. He would overexert himself and end up wheezing and coughing, due to his weak lung and his false one. He would have much trouble with food, due to his stomach; that was a challenge in itself, finding out what and how much Ed could eat. The most fun of all, perhaps, was Ed's head. His hearing 'aids' would periodically malfunction, giving him little shocks or loud screeches. Winry remedied these the best she could, and in the end, he only received occasional screeches, maybe once a week. Whenever someone yelled in his ear, though, the little devices would screech quite painfully into Ed's head. He had once accidentally punched Al when Al had hugged his brother and yelled Ed too close to his ear in random excitement. Al had cried at first, still learning his emotions, but had stopped when Ed apologized and hugged him. The scene overall had made Winry cry half from happiness at the two being together again.

After several months and several ignored phone calls from Central, Ed finally called Mustang back, insisting that he was alive and well and would be reporting back within the week. He had neglected to let Mustang know what had happened and what had changed with him; but he did plan on, finally, retiring from the military to marry Winry and settle down. He had left with Al, certain that Al would want to see Central through human eyes again.

* * *

"Come on Al, you're stopping at every plant you see to smell it. And you wonder why your allergies are acting up."

"But Ed, there's so many smells now. Everything has a smell! Different buildings have different smells, different plants, even different people. Winry smells like flowers and fresh bread and oil, and you smell like musty old books and oil."

"I get it, we're both into automail. But, seriously, people keep looking at you like you lost it. You're sniffing more than a dog would. Lay a little low, will ya?"

Al grins sheepishly. "Y-yeah, sorry Ed." The rest of their walk is fairly normal, save for Al picking a small wildflower-weed bouquet on the way to smell as they walked.

It's with this that they walk up the stairs to Central Command, Ed still needing a break in the hall before they get to Mustang's office. He's adjusted to his new body, but that doesn't mean he's back to his old self. He'll never be able to run far or engage in his martial arts again. But, he keeps telling himself, he has Al, Winry and life. That's enough.

"Fullmetal?" Mustang stands to welcome Ed's presence, but looks at Ed's bright-eyed companion. "And this is..?"

"Fuhrer, it's good to see you again," Al answers, bowing slightly.

"Wait, I know that voice.." Mustang pauses, then points at him. "Alphonse?"

Ed just laughs, Al answering. "Brother fixed me. Now I've got my body back.." He does a little twirl, showing off his exuberant energy.

"Incredible," Mustang muses, staring at Al before spotting Ed sitting down on one of the couches, looking a bit tired. "How did you do it?"

Ed just looks up at Mustang, his eyes those of a trickster. "Equivalent exchange, Mustang. I gave me for him."

"I don't understand. You're still here."

Ed just grins, pulling his shirt off to reveal his fresh scars, tapping his chest. It's quite a sight, like something from a horror story. The initial cuts were to access Ed's organs, and as such were a simple T shape. However, after Ed had mostly recovered and had been having trouble with the organs not working as they should, Winry installed an 'access panel' to open his chest if needed. It was a rectangle, spanning his chest and halfway to his stomach, with rounded corners, its edges fitting very snugly against his skin, no matter what was he turned or flexed. The panel was made of such a material to allow the toughness of human skin and muscle, but be flexible enough to give Ed almost his full range of motion.

Mustang's eyes widen in horror. He stares, unable to speak; he finally stands and walks over to Ed, tentatively running a hand across Ed's pale chest. Of course it's pale.. it's not even real skin, just a lookalike covering. He frowns, fingers running over the edge of the panel. "What is all of this..?"

Ed stands there, allowing his most trusted ally to inspect the thing that he had to see in the mirror every day. "Winry has learned to make more than just automail," Ed says with a small smile; there's something off about that smile, something not fully _there_. "She saved my life after I gave Al his." Ed reaches to his chest, forcing apart a the few latches on the non-hinged side. Immediately Mustang withdraws his hand, watching in half-horror, half-fascination as Ed opens his chest for both to see.

The ribcage held the artificial heart in, as well as one artificial lung and one original one. The windpipe is original; the stomach had been replaced, but Winry had saved the intestines. The kidneys were like the lungs: one original, one artificial. The real amazement, though, isn't the Frankenstein-like creation that Ed had become, or being able to see Ed's heart beat or his lungs inflate and deflate as he uses them; but rather, the red glow from his just in front of his heart. Embedded carefully in his sternum-that bone that the ribs connect in the front to-is a red stone, glowing brightly.

"..A Philosopher's Stone?" Mustang asks incredulously, reaching out to touch it.

Ed quickly diverts Mustang's hand. "No. Red stone liquid. Dr. Marcoh gave it to us years ago; I knew it wouldn't be enough to restore Al, so I left it in Winry's care. It helps my new.. system run smoothly and strongly. Without it, I.." He frowns.

"His system would run haywire," Al finishes. "Not to mention, his body would exhaust much more quickly from the strain of all of these machines. The stone allows his old body to merge with his new body."

"In short, it lets you live," Mustang summarizes. "Are you able to perform alchemy with that new system of yours?"

Ed closes the chest panel, locking it in place with a morbid peace about him. "I haven't tried. I have no more reason to, anyway. I've gotten Al back; I've done all I need to do. I have one more thing to do before I return home to marry Winry. Well," he pauses, gaining a thoughtful smile, "two things."

Mustang frowns, not sure he'll like where this is going. "And those are?"

"One, retired from the military. My reason for being in it has been accomplished; now, I am going to 'settle down'."

"..And two?" Mustang asks, raising an eyebrow.

"To invite you, of course." Ed grins. "You and everyone else to the wedding!"

* * *

This little story was inspired by an old roleplay with a friend. The memory glanced across my mind and I figured I'd write up a little modified version.  
Yes, Pinako has passed away. :c


End file.
